Customer Conversations: Chris Lehe
Snapshot: Lehe Farms
Near Brookston, IN
5,000 acres of popcorn and soybeans
Advanced Agrilytics customer since 2022
Prescriptions used:
Nitrogen Management Suite (nitrogen placement, Nitrogen Protectant)
Seeding and plant population
Spread across White and Tippecanoe counties in northwest Indiana lies Lehe Farms. Third-generation farmer Chris Lehe grows about 5,000 acres of soybeans and popcorn and runs about 60 head of beef cattle on the operation, along with his father Don and his cousin Zach. The farm has been in Chris’ family since 1955, when his grandfather Simon bought it and his three sons, Don, Dick and Dale helped him work it.
Back in 2022, Chris was looking for ways to farm more efficiently in terms of improving production per acre and getting better ROI from his fertilizer expenditures. Patrick McMullan, a childhood friend and Advanced Agrilytics Precision Agronomist, offered a solution that made sense.
“Patrick explained the Advanced Agrilytics method of looking deeper into the soil conditions and the field environment and making more data-driven decisions about fertilizer applications and other agronomic practices,” explains Lehe. “A big reason we wanted to work with Advanced Agrilytics is how the company addressed nutrient efficiency. We realized there was an alternative to using the tri-state critical levels to determine fertilizer application rates. Those are pretty vague and broad.”
Lehe liked the idea of getting away from the “cookie-cutter” approach to fertilizer recommendations.
“Advanced Agrilytics can do a deeper analysis of soil samples and determine that, on this acre, you could benefit from applying more than the tri-state critical levels, and why,” explains Lehe. “In some areas, there are enough other factors affecting the nutrients that can make that acre more productive and make the nutrients more available to the plant. On the other hand, you may want to apply less than the tri-state critical levels on a different acre because of what’s going on in that environment. The nutrients aren’t going to be converted or available to the plant, so there’s no benefit from having that much fertilizer on the acre.
“That logic really clicked with us – it made sense. If we can be more efficient with our fertilizer, why not do that? If we’re wasting money throwing a bunch of fertilizer over here on an acre where the plant can’t access it because of what’s going on in the soil, why would we do that?”
Lehe enrolled 25% of his acres with Advanced Agrilytics in 2022 and says the results were evident. “At the end of the year, after comparing yields and everything, we were convinced that using the Advanced Agrilytics method more than pays for itself.”
The Data Doesn’t Lie
Lehe points to one specific popcorn field to demonstrate the results achieved in just one year of Advanced Agrilytics management.
“When we enrolled that field at the beginning of 2022, our ag retailer had already spread fertilizer on it in the fall of 2021. So we weren’t able to see the benefit from the dry fertilizer prescription provided by Advanced Agrilytics, because that fertilizer had already been applied. However, we were able to use Advanced Agrilytics’ prescriptions for our planting population and our anhydrous application.
“I want to point out that even though we weren’t able to use Advanced Agrilytics prescriptions for our fall fertilizer application, we still saw tremendous statistical improvements by using the Advanced Agrilytics prescriptions for planting population and our anhydrous application.
“The change in yield distributions in my operations is what really sold us on Advanced Agrilytics. The percentage of acres that were in the lowest-yielding bracket dropped significantly. The percentage of acres that were in the upper distributions increased. To us, the most significant part of the equation was that there was a significant increase in the percentage of acres that were near our median yield, and the median was closer to our top end than any of the previous years (when popcorn was planted in that field).
“Just analyzing our yield distribution over all 350 acres and comparing that to the last five or six seasons we’ve grown popcorn in that field, it was obvious that we were making each acre far more efficient. And we saw that much improvement without being able to use the Advanced Agrilytics prescription on our fall-applied fertilizer. We used two out of the three Advanced Agrilytics prescriptions available to us and still saw this much improvement in yield consistency. Those results came from using the planting prescription and the anhydrous prescription. Looking at the comparison data, it was obvious that 2022 was our most efficient year on those acres.”
Lehe enrolled all of his acres with Advanced Agrilytics after seeing those results.
Compare yield maps from this Lehe Farms soybean field. On the left is the yield map from 2022, and on the right is the yield map from 2024. Notice how much yield improved in a significant portion of this field over time, under Advanced Agrilytics management
In 2022, this field yielded an average of 57 bu/A (12,946 bushels total yield). In 2024, the same field averaged a yield of 77 bu/A (17,553 bushels total yield). The total yield improvement in this field was 4,607 bushels in two years – a 35.5% yield improvement.
“After looking at the 2022 data on our enrolled acres, we were convinced that we were far more efficient even without the benefit of the dry fertilizer prescription,” he says. “We enrolled all of our acres and have been using the dry fertilizer, planting population, the anhydrous prescription and the variable rate nitrogen stabilizer prescriptions. We’ve been putting them all to work.”
Lehe reports that the numbers continue to prove that working with Advanced Agrilytics improves yield consistency.
“Looking at my 2024 yield distribution data, I can tell you that it improved even more,” he reports. “I’m not looking at whether we’re getting the highest possible yield – there are a lot of factors affecting yield that we can’t control. But I do believe that by continuing to work with Advanced Agrilytics, we will start increasing that top-end yield. Looking at the yield distribution and seeing how every single acre is getting more efficient, it’s logical to see that eventually, we will increase our top-end yield.”
Agronomic Expertise is an Added Value
Lehe says the in-depth data analysis and customized, highly detailed prescriptions are just part of the value that Advanced Agrilytics brings to his operation.
“The agronomic expertise and detailed reporting that Pat provides is extremely valuable to us, as well as the prescriptions,” Lehe explains. “When we started with Advanced Agrilytics in 2022, we didn’t really know what results to expect. But we got a detailed scouting report on every acre we had enrolled. Honestly, when we saw those, we knew the service was worth every penny. The prescriptions combined with the service and detailed reporting are invaluable to us. Those proactive observations have been so valuable – spotting disease so we can treat it before we lose yield, for example.”
Lehe also points out another factor that he appreciates – Advanced Agrilytics’ unbiased position in the marketplace.
“When we’re trying to make a decision or we have somebody coming to us trying to sell a product or this or that, obviously those salespeople have an agenda,” Lehe says. “We get Pat’s input all of the time, because we know there’s no skin in the game for him if we use a certain product or not. To be able to get someone’s unbiased feedback is extremely helpful.”
To learn more about how to get started with Advanced Agrilytics visit info@advancedagrilytics.com or call (877) 327-6428 (877-FARM GATE).
© 2025 Advanced Agrilytics Holdings, LLC. All rights reserved. Advanced Agrilytics and design are trademarks of Advanced Agrilytics Holdings, LLC.